213762 Capt. Hobart Amory Hare Baker Croix de GuerreUnited States Army 103d Aero Squadron Lafayette Escadrille from:Phildadelphia, PA (d.22nd Dec 1918) Hobey Baker entered the U.S. Army in May 1917, just after the United States declared war on Germany. Three months later, he was sent to France, where, after superb marks in aerial gunnery training, he was accepted into the fabled Lafayette Escadrille, a combat pilot unit that later became the 103rd Aero Squadron (8th Feb. 1918).
With an insatiable spirit for adventure, he was a natural at flying planes, maneuvering them as athletically as he did his body when dodging tacklers on the football field at Princeton.
As a combat pilot, he had scraps in the sky with enemy gunners that resulted in three kills. After each one, he observed the code by which combat pilots lived: He honored his fallen foes with a toast of cognac. Baker was awarded the French Croix de Guerre for gallantry and was cited by Gen. John Pershing, the American Expeditionary Force commander, for distinguished service. At home, newspapers heralded him as a war hero.
When the war ended, in November 1918, he felt a sense of loss. He loved being a pilot and simply had not had his fill of flying and fighting. On Dec. 21, the day he was scheduled to leave Toul for Paris and then return to civilian life in the United States, he told his airmates he was going to go for "one last flight."
Capt. Baker took off during a heavy rain. At 600 feet, the engine quit. Instead of trying to crash-land, Baker, with his typical I-can-get-through-this mind-set, tried to bring the plane back to base. But he didn't have enough altitude to regain flying speed and pull the nose of the plane back up. He crashed, nose down, near the air-base hangar. His air mates freed him from the wreckage. Minutes later, he died in an ambulance.
|